Jean Monnet is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Jean Monnet Chairs named after him are given to university professors who have shown tremendous effort and excellence in their careers on matters related to EU. They are awarded as the highest recognition of a sign of prestige in research, teaching and dissemination activities by the European Union. The Chair aims mainly to deepen teaching in EU studies in an official curriculum of a higher education institution. In Turkey, only five professors have been selected as Jean Monnet Chair in 2020.

Professor Özgür ÜNAL-ERİŞ who was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration by the European Commission with her project dedicated to the theme of EU Awareness, Relations and Cooperation (COAWARE) in 2020, aims to create an important impact on European studies through teaching BA and MA courses like External Relations of the EU and History and Politics of European Integration and through hosting various seminars, webinars, workshops and meetings with the main aim of creating a bridge between academics, civil society experts and high level policy-makers across Turkey and Europe. The main aim of raising and promoting awareness on European Union is not only targeting students, but it is also targeting public in general. This JM Chair intends to provide a platform for this aim for the years between 2020-2023 by using Istanbul 29 Mayıs University as the main venue. This project is all supported by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.